Security forces in Manipur have been put on high alert following the announcement of 40 hours general strike by the banned Manipur People’s Liberation Front (MPLF) to boycott of two-day visit of the President of India, Pratibha Patil.The President who arrived at Nagaland’s capital Kohima today will be arriving in Imphal at 4 pm Thursday. Security forces and police have intensified mopping operation in and around the Imphal areas, mostly at places where the President is scheduled to tour, a senior police officer said.Personnel of the state police bomb disposal squad has conducted search on the roadside from Airport to Imphal Raj Bhavan, if any bomb was planted by rebels, however, no explosive was found during the search. The banned MPLF has called a 40-hour general strike to boycott the President’s visit in the state, starting from midnight of March 9 till March 11, 4 pm.MPLF in an emailed statement said the President’s visit was “nothing but to lie that Manipur is a part of India.”Stating that the government of India had been suppressing the people for the last 60 years by deploying excessive number of security forces, the statement alleged that the visit was targeted to “fool the world that India was taking care of Manipur” when they were not doing anything in the interest of the people.The banned outfit charged that the government of India was terrorizing the people by enforcing AFSPA, which gave extra power to security forces for the past 55 years. It also stated that the government of India failed to understand that “people of Manipur wished to live in a state freedom.”